Blog #4: A Search For Nature’s Tranquility

Do any of Yeats’ poems connect with your own personal experience? Select one of Yeats’ poems ( or a section thereof) and discuss how the poem connects with your own understanding of the world in which we live.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

William Yeats, 1890

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The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a poem by William Yeats that reveals his desire to leave the mire of the urban environment in which he resides for the spiritual nourishment which a connection with nature provides. I have great cause to empathise with Yeats’ desire in my own experience.

My grandparents live on a farm in the Hunter Valley, in a house on the crest of a hill that overlooks the Hunter River. For all of my living memory, this place has been one of reflection and reconnection with nature. It is a place that I have visited at least twice a year at Christmas and Easter, often more.

The cadence of the poem induces a sense of tranquility reminiscent of my own experience, aided by the imagery of:

for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings

I know intimately of what Yeats describes, his words immediately bringing me back to this experience. I have a selection of photos I’ve taken that I think convey it better than any words I could bring to bear.

That desire for a place of stillness is also well evidenced:

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to experience such a place as a child on a regular basis, instilling as it did the value of setting aside time for solitude and contemplation. In the frantic demands for attention in an contemporary urban environment, it is comforting to know this continues to be a place to return to.  

In one small manner my own experience contrasts with Yeats;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

Part of the value of this place for me lies in the fact that all of my (many!) relatives will congregate here to share in this experience. Inherent to the sense of reflection I associate with this place is the connections it has built with family. The value of the place only grows the more it is shared! My grandmother’s diagnosis of cancer earlier this year has in a strange manner only heightened this appreciation, having become a very frequent visitor in recent months. Her tranquility in the face of such adversity stands a testament to the power of this place and the influence it holds. Such surroundings have been a balm in confronting the challenge of her condition.

Photos credit Colman, Andrew. Photographs of Greta. 2016-2020. Author’s personal collection.